Now that the majority of our Jefferson Airplane library is available for download, we made this playlist to help you navigate through all of their great content. It's a perfect intro for newbies and will help old fans pick out a favorite show.
9.30.66
This set is notable for containing the earliest known live performances of several characteristic JA songs. The band was gaining confidence and diversifying their live repertoire.
10.1.66
To end their set this night, Balin invites members of the Muddy Waters Blues Band to the stage, who join JA for a collaborative, loose, and spontaneous rendition of "Midnight Hour."
10.14.66 - 10.16.66
This run of shows encompasses the departure original female vocalist Signe Anderson, and the emergence of Grace Slick as her replacement. Marty Balin's announcement about Anderson leaving the band and her actual farewell to the crowd precede 'Chauffeur Blues.' 'The Other Side of This Life,' from the following day, was the first song ever played live with Slick.
11.6.66
This concert falls right in the middle of the initial studio sessions for Surrealistic Pillow, which included two songs Grace took with her from the Great Society: "White Rabbit" and "Somebody To Love." You can hear the band is still working out the arrangement for STL, but it would soon bring them international recognition.
2.26.67
After Skip Spence left his gig drumming with JA, he picked more talented songwriter/musicians from various bands and recorded a great debut album. But, during their first three years together, the band experienced disastrous management, legal entanglements, arrests, stolen equipment, and even drug-induced insanity.
8.5.67
By August of 1967, Slick had been fully integrated into the band, and her confidence had increased. She was the visual focal point of the band, and an icon of the SF music scene. The band's sound was changing as well, heading in a far more experimental direction than before. The sessions for After Bathing at Baxter's were still in progress, and the live performances were similarly psychedelic.
10.26.68
This Fillmore West set was recorded at the peak of the classic lineup's powers and this set is arguably even better than their live album, Bless It's Pointed Little Head. "Rock Me Baby" points in the direction that Jorma and Jack would take with Hot Tuna the following year.
7.3.71
Jorma and Jack's side project, Hot Tuna, represented the Jefferson Airplane faction during the Fillmore West's closing week festivities.
11.24.74
This was the first tour after Jorma and Jack left for good, replaced by Craig Chaquico and Pete Sears. David Freiberg (ex-QMS), Johnny Barbata (ex-CSNY), and Papa John Creach were also on board. 'Better Laying Down' is from Grace's first solo album, Manholes, and 'Starship' is from Kantner's Blows Against the Empire. For the encore, Marty Balin shared the stage with Slick and Kantner for the first time since the final JA gig two years earlier.
12.30.79
Slick and Balin were out; Mickey Thomas was singing and Aynsley Dunbar was drumming. The result was a series of AOR-friendly arena-rock songs.
10.6.81
This show is from Balin's first post-Starship solo tour and features mostly material from his debut album, Balin. Picking up where he left off with JS, when he was pushing the band to the top of the charts with love songs like "Miracles," he had become a popular singer of adult love songs, like "Atlanta Lady."
6.27.84
The night before this 1984 show, Kantner informed the band he was leaving. He felt he had lost control of the band and no longer wanted to play radio-friendly pop rock. China Kantner, Paul and Grace's daughter, sings throughout this concert.
4.3.87
K=Kantner, B=Balin, C=Casady. Living deeply under the influence of the current MTV playlist, the single "It's Not You, It's Me" has some real legs, but they also included classic crowd pleasers like "Plastic Fantastic Lover" in their sets.
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